Semper Fidelis

Chapter 14.4

The Gryphon captain and his right hand man arrived on the landing of the upper floor. There was a skylight and Harry spied the stars and bright moon from beneath the glass. The landing was a large open space with four doors leading to the different rooms on the upper floor. There was another reading area built into one wall and Harry saw that the books which were on the shelf around it have been cast to the ground. He saw Draco standing by the only closed door across the landing and tracing patterns with his wand. Remus led him to a door which was opened.

Harry knew he was in Ms. Watson's bedroom the moment he entered. He felt like he knew Ms. Jane Watson a little better as he walked through her home. She loved books as evidenced by the bookshelves he saw in the places he had already explored, and this bedroom told the same tale. The room had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves built into two walls. The shelves and the wall surrounding her reading nook by the window were white while an accent wall of pale lavender backdropped a large king sized bed covered in cream duvet and pillows. Two matching side-tables flanked the bed on top of which an assortment of picture frames and more books were placed. A cut in the bookshelves on one of the walls made way to an opened door which led to a large closet and en suite bathroom.

But like the rest of the home he had seen so far, this room was also trashed, the pictures also burned. Books pulled from the shelves and torn pages littered the ground that Harry had a hard time seeing the floor. He looked through the other door and saw the same thing. Clothes which were once neatly arranged on their hangers had been thrown to the ground. The drawers have been rummaged through and even the place underneath the bathroom sink had been searched. Ansel was in this room looking confused at all the stuff.

"Found anything, Ansel?" Harry asked.

The raven haired man turned to look at him, his eyebrows creased in frustration atop his glasses. "Not yet, Captain. There are so many things to go through."

Harry nodded his head and stepped out of the room following Remus' beckon. The older man led Harry to another room on the second floor. Harry spied Tonks walking around this room through the opened door and when he entered he knew he was in the office. Rich mahogany brown bookshelves lined the walls and there was a large desk with feather carvings all around which stood in front of a bay window. A lamp, notebooks, and pens sat atop the surface of the table. Harry spied a cord snaking towards the table from an outlet on the wall but there was no laptop to be seen.

If the rest of the house was bad, then this was the worst. No books remained on the shelves for they had all been pulled out, pages rifled through and torn. Most of the wooden stacks were broken and on the ground leaving just the shell of the bookcase. All drawers of the desk had been pulled out and searched and laid discarded on the floor atop pages of the books, their contents spilled all around. The mahogany desk had scorch marks and scratches on its surface, marring the once beautiful feather mosaic, no doubt due to countless spells fired at it to reveal its secrets.

Tonks was using her wand to search through the contents of the desks that had been spilled on the ground. After glimpsing her husband and Harry, she stood up and walked over to them and enveloped Harry in a hug. "Wotcher Harry," she said in a soft greeting. "It's good to see you."

Harry hugged the Metamorphmagus tightly. "Good to see you too, Tonks," he said before letting go. "What have you found out about Ms. Watson?"

"Probably not more than what Remus had already told you," she replied with a frown. "It's hard to get a read on what she had been doing since those bloody intruders left us all this mess to go through!" She exclaimed in frustration, gesturing around the room. "But I'll find something, Harry, even if I have to read every single one of these pages."

Harry gave her a grim nod and walked out of the room. He glimpsed through the other opened door and saw that it was another bathroom in the same state as the other one in the masters. His brows wrinkled when he caught sight of Draco, now joined by Theo and Nova from downstairs, hovering outside the only closed door across the landing.

That had to be James' bedroom.

In four long strides, Harry crossed the floor and stood with his team. Theo and Nova made way for him while Draco remained crouched on the ground, his platinum blonde head leveled with the doorknob, and his wand clutched in his hand.

"Draco,"  Harry said his name in greeting.

"Good to see you, Potter," Draco said, the familiar name slipping from his mouth. Though they have been friends for a long time, the habit of calling Harry by his last name never did go away for Draco Malfoy. He unbent his knees and gave Harry a quick hug.

"What do we have here?" Harry asked, gesturing to the closed door. "This is James' bedroom isn't it?"

Draco shrugged. "By process of elimination, it has to be. But we're not sure," he replied.

Harry frowned. "You're not sure? Why not? Go inside and see!"

Draco had to avoid rolling his eyes at his superior. "We've tried that Potter, and the intruders did as well. But we can't." He said. That was when he pointed around the door.

When Harry had walked towards it, a lot of the room's entryway was obscured by the Gryphons standing in front. But now that the blonde was stood upright and Harry was a mere foot away from it, nothing was obscuring his view. Like the front door, the intruders tried very hard to enter. But while they were eventually able to break the spell that protected the front door, they were unable to do the same for this room.

The surrounding area of the door was absolutely scorched and scratched due to the countless spells thrown at it. But the white door with its silver handle withstood. Not one imperfection marked the wooden surface.

Harry withdrew his wand from the pocket of his coat and pointed it towards the door. "Alohomora!" He said.

Nothing happened.

A line formed in between his brows. "Stand back," he said, and the Gryphons behind him dutifully followed his command. "Bombarda!"

The blue light whizzed through his wand and was dispersed off of an invisible shield which protected the door.

Harry felt his jaw turn slack.